


Just One Yesterday

by Levaaah



Series: Freefalling [1]
Category: Batman - All Media Types, Nightwing (Comics)
Genre: Bruce Wayne is a Bad Parent, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Gen, Origins, but he's trying his best
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-08
Packaged: 2021-03-06 04:14:20
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,679
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25787161
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Levaaah/pseuds/Levaaah
Summary: I had a dream so big and loudI jumped so high I touched the cloudsI stretched my hands out to the skyWe danced with monsters through the nightEleanor is seven years old and this week is special, because this week Alfred has gone back to England and dadwill be home all the time!Eleanor can't wait to show him the pamphlet to the circus that they got from school. And she can't wait to meet the elephant!
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Original Female Character
Series: Freefalling [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1631698
Comments: 1
Kudos: 34





	Just One Yesterday

2004 – September – Gotham 

Eleanor fidgets outside the office door, she looks down at the pamphlet clutched in her hands. The brightly coloured paper was from school, a stack of them had been delivered earlier this week. Eleanor had been working up the courage to ask her dad about it. She’d been good, she thinks dad will say yes. But she’s still nervous. Eleanor had even cleaned her room, removed all of her toys from the floor to the chest and made the bed, _and_ hoovered. Usually Alfred oversaw her cleaning, but he had taken some time off to go back to England this week. Which meant that dad was home taking care of her.

It was exciting, dad usually spent most of his time away from home. Now, for a _whole week_ he was going to stay home with her. Last night he had even made hot cocoa and peanut butter and jam sandwiches for her while she had watched Brother Bear on the big screen in the theatre room. Even if dad hadn’t removed the crusts or cut the sandwiches in triangles like Alfred did it was still the best thing ever.

She looks at the pamphlet again, at the bright reds, greens and yellows then lightly knocks on the door. Dad doesn’t like it when she just walks in to his office, even if it takes a little while for him to answer the door, Eleanor is patient. Dad does important work after all, she can’t expect him to run after her all the time. It takes a bit longer than normal, she thinks, but eventually dad opens the door for her.

“Eleanor.”

“Hi dad,” she starts, smiling up at him. “Are you busy?”

Dad gestures for her to walk inside, so she does, sitting down in the large chair on the opposite side of his desk, the one Mr. Fox usually sat in when he made house calls for Wayne Enterprises.

“What’s on your mind?”

“Well,” Eleanor holds the pamphlet out. “We got this at school, and I thought maybe we could go? It’s only going to be in Gotham for a week.”

Dad takes the pamphlet from her hands, reading it over with that look in his eyes that Eleanor doesn’t really understand. It’s that look that adults get, she wonders if her adult face is going to look similar.

“A circus?”

“They have an elephant and carousels and lots of shows. And I’ve been really good, I cleaned my room and I’ve done all my homework, can we go please?”

“Hn.” Dad makes that noise that means he’s thinking, or maybe it means he’s annoyed. Eleanor doesn’t really know, she doesn’t really understand dad much. But she knows she’s already asked twice now, and she really doesn’t want to annoy him, so she sits still in the large brown leather chair and waits.

“We can go this Saturday.” Dad says eventually, placing the pamphlet on the desk. Eleanor almost jumps out of her seat in excitement. It was going to be awesome. Just the two of them all day!

When Eleanor wakes up the Saturday they’re going to the circus it’s still super early. She knows dad sleeps in pretty late because of all the important work at Wayne Enterprises so she does her morning routines as if she’s going to school. Brushing her teeth, eating the prepared sandwiches that dad always left for her – well almost always, he forgot once. But it’s okay, she can make her own sandwiches if she really tries. After that she goes back to her bathroom and showers, then dresses in the clothes she’d picked the day before, along with the bracelet she’s not supposed to leave home without, the one dad gave her when she was very little. By the time she’s done it’s only seven forty-five. Dad won’t be up for another couple of hours at least.

So she watches Animal Planet in the smaller TV room downstairs, and once she’s bored of that it’s like nine and dad’s still not come downstairs. Eleanor moves on to the chess table in the same room, normally Alfred would play with her, and playing against herself is kind of boring, but she makes it more fun by swapping chairs, putting on voices and pretending that she’s not alone. Thirty minutes after that she’s starting to get a bit hungry. So she peal and eats a satsuma from the fruit bowl and stares at the pamphlet from the circus. There’s a big elephant on the front of it, with ‘Haly’s Circus’ written above it. On the back side of it there’s three people soaring through the air with ‘The Flying Grayson’s’ written under them. All she can think about is how amazing it’s going to be, watching all the cool stuff and eating roasted peanuts and cotton candy – with dad!

Eleanor knows she’s not supposed to go outside, not even to the swings, not alone. Even though she’s really, _really_ bored. But not soon after she stares longingly at the back garden she hears the horrible gurgling noise of the coffee machine and runs to the kitchen – even though she’s not supposed to run inside. Dad’s dressed in his business suit, which is a bit weird but maybe Mr. Fox needed to speak with him before they go to the circus.

“Good morning!” she says happily.

“Good morning.” Dad replies, glancing at her as he pours the coffee. Eleanor wrinkles her nose at the really bad smell. She would never drink that stuff, like ever. Not matter how much dad liked it.

“When do we go to the circus?”

Dad raises an eyebrow at her. “Later in the evening, Eleanor. I need to do a bit of work first.”

“Oh,” Eleanor hopes she doesn’t look too sad. “Okay. Can I play outside?”

“Yes. But no further than the…”

“Animal bushes! Thanks dad.”

Later in the day once Eleanor has exhausted herself running around outside, dad orders lunch for them that they both eat at the table in the dining room. But it’s not until the little hand and the big hand both sit at four on the clock that dad tells her they’re going. Eleanor doesn’t leave the manor very often, mostly it’s when Alfred takes her with him to the farmers market, it’s only happened once or twice with dad and those times they usually went to Wayne Tower in the city. So it’s super exciting when she gets in the car backseat and peers out the tinted windows, the greenery soon giving way to concrete and steel.

It doesn’t take very long to get to the circus, dad’s really good at driving. Soon all Eleanor can see is flashing lights, people and _clowns_. Dad keeps a hand over her back as they walk through the crows, lightly guiding her to stay close to him when he buys tickets. They don’t get too far in before dad is stopped though. Eleanor recognizes the man and woman that stops them, it’s the mayor and his wife. Which means a lot of adult talk and urgh… _more waiting_.

“Ah if it isn’t Bruce Wayne!” Mayor Klass says, holding his arms out as if he’s going to hug dad. Dad just smiles politely, clasping the Mayor’s hand in a strong handshake.

“Mr Mayor.”

“And little Eleanor, my you have grown since I last saw you.”

“I’m four foot two inches tall now.” Eleanor says proudly, she was gonna be as tall as dad when she grew up. The Mayor smiles like most of the adults do when she speaks to them, like she’s a baby. When he turns away she barely manages to resist poking her tongue out at him, she doesn’t like it when people treat her like she’s small. She’s strong and tall, just like dad. They start talking about the city and urgh, politics that Eleanor is quick to tune out. Instead she watches all the brightly coloured clowns that roam around, doing silly faces that makes the other kids laugh.

Then she hears the sound of what has got to be an elephant. She looks up at dad, talking and laughing with the Mayor. She’s not supposed to interrupt adults, Eleanor is supposed to wait until they’ve finished talking but adults talk _forever._ She’ll just go and see the elephant, then come back before they’re done. She can be fast. Maybe she’ll even get to pet it.

No one really pays attention to her when she walks towards the elephant noises, the bright red and white tents are open so it’s easy to just walk inside. There isn’t as many people inside the tents as there was outside, but most of them are busy doing things. Then as she rounds the corner, she sees the grey coloured and large animal making small trumpet noises and Eleanor grins. She’s never seen an elephant up close before, the ears are larger than she thought they would be.

“Hello.” She says, the elephant makes another low trumpet noise and looks at her.

“You’re not supposed to be back here.” Another voice says behind her, making Eleanor jump. She turns around to see a boy jogging towards her, he’s got black hair and blue eyes and are dressed in one of those acrobatic outfit things that Eleanor can’t remember the word for and must be around the same age as her. “How’d you even get in?” There’s an accent to his English that Eleanor can’t really place, it’s not the Gothamite one, she would recognize that one easy.

“It was open,” she says when he keeps staring at her. “And uhm, I wanted to see the elephant.”

The boy walks up to the large animal, laughing quietly when it wraps its trunk around his waist. Eleanor watches almost mesmerised.

“Her name is Zitka, and she used to babysit me.”

“Really? That’s so cool.” Eleanor stays where she is, watching as the boy pets Zitka’s trunk affectionately.

“You wanna pet her?”

She nods eagerly.

“What’s your name?” the boy asks, untangling from the elephant. Waving her closer, Eleanor heart thuds a bit faster in her chest in excitement. But then, Eleanor hesitates, most other kids where nice to her because of her last name. That’s how it had been in school. They didn’t really want to get to know her because of _her_. The adults where worse, she knew that they pretended she didn’t understand it, but she did. The adults wanted her to be friends with their kids because she’s a Wayne. So maybe if she didn’t tell this boy her last name he wouldn’t treat her any differently.

“Eleanor.”

The boy smiles again.

“Eleanor, this is Zitka, Zitka, this is Eleanor.”

The elephant reaches out with her trunk, sniffing at Eleanor's clothes for a moment before wrapping her up in an elephant hug. It’s both scary and exciting at the same time. Eleanor grins, looking to her new friend and back to the large animal. She places her hand on the trunk, it’s warm and coarse under her fingertips. She could never pick her favourite animal, she loves tigers, wolves, foxes and dolphins. But elephants may actually be her favourite, Zitka squeezes her gently, small eyes watching her from high up. Then she lets Eleanor go, returning to eating the hay on a pile not too far away.

“Wow.” She breathes. Beside her the boy laughs.

“Amazing right?”

“Totally. You get to pet her every day?”

“Yup!” He smiles. Eleanor is a little jealous, but at least she’s experienced it once. He goes over to a box on the other side, digging out two apples, and hands her one.

“Zitka loves apples,” he says, holding the other one out to the elephant, who makes that same low trumpet sound and gently takes it from the boy’s outstretched hand, chewing it loudly. Then sniffs his hand and face, he laughs loudly, gesturing for her to do the same thing. Eleanor hesitantly holds her hand out just like the boy, the apple resting flat in the palm of her hand. Zitka eagerly takes the fruit she offers, chewing it loudly and returns to sniff Eleanor’s still outstretched hand. She also gets a sloppy and sticky elephant kiss on her cheek and Eleanor can’t help but to giggle and squirm away from.

“Zitka is the best.” She declares, the elephant in question waves with her ears as if she’s agreeing.

“She is.” The boy nods. She turns her head to look at him, admiring the pretty blue on light blue with the bird shape of his outfit.

“You live here, like, always?”

The boy brushes some hair out of his face and nods.

“Me and my mom and dad, we have an act too.”

“Cool.” Eleanor repeats. “What is it?”

“Tra-“

“Dick!” A woman calls out further away, she’s wearing the same colour outfit as Eleanor’s new friend. “There you are, I thought I told you to come straight back after helping James.”

“I was gonna,” the boy – Dick, says, crossing his arms. “But then I found her and I kinda forgot. Sorry mom.”

The woman looks at Eleanor, she doesn’t look angry like Eleanor is expecting. Instead she looks a bit worried. Like Alfred looks whenever she does something dangerous.

“Hello sweetie, what’s your name?”

“Eleanor Wayne.” Eleanor replies for the second time. Dick’s mom frowns a little, like most adults do when Eleanor tells them her last name.

“Are you here with your parents? Did you get lost?”

“I’m not lost.” She says, “dad is just talking to Mayor Klass and I went to see the elephant and met him.” She looks at Dick who grins back at her with a toothy smile.

“Alright, why don’t we go find your dad though, you shouldn’t really wander off alone, you know.”

Eleanor shrugs, she wasn’t lost and although she didn’t really want to leave just yet, she does as she’s asked and leads them back to where dad was. Only he’s not there when they get there.

She looks around, standing on her tippy toes to see further.

“He was here.” She hears herself say.

“What does your dad look like?” Dick asks, also looking around.

“He’s super tall and has black hair and blue eyes. Like you, only, you know, taller.”

Dick looks around for a moment, she does the same. Behind them both Dick’s mom lets out a little sigh.

“Can’t see anyone super tall.” Dick says then. Eleanor feels her stomach hurt a little, was she really lost? She couldn’t be lost, dad had been here, and she hadn’t been gone for that long, right? Her lip trembles a little as she calls out for her dad. No one comes.

“It’s okay Eleanor,” Dick’s mom puts a hand on her shoulder, “we’ll find your dad okay? Why don’t you come with us until we do.”

She’s not supposed to go with strangers, then again she’s not supposed to wander off alone either. and Dick’s mom doesn’t look very mean. But if she’s lost in a crowd she’s supposed to stay where she is, talk to a police officer or find another parent with kids. That’s what Alfred always told her.

“It’s okay,” Dick says next to her. “Mom can talk to Mr Haly and he can find your dad. He can find anyone, promise.”

Eleanor nods a bit hesitantly.

“My name is Mary,” Dick’s mom says, crouching down so that she’s eye level with Eleanor. It’s kind of weird, none of the other adults she knows ever did that, except for Alfred when she needed help with something. “What’s your dads name?”

“Bruce Wayne.” Eleanor mumbles. Mary nods, holding her hand out for Eleanor to take.

“We’ll find him, sweetie, don’t worry.”

They walk back to the tent with Zitka, and then out the back to a bunch of trailers. There’s a man stepping out of one with an open door with the same blue and light blue outfit as Dick and Mary. She’s sat down on a chair outside with Dick on the other side with a table between them as the adults talk in hushed voices that even though Eleanor hears them doesn’t understand.

“What are they saying?” She whispers to her new friend. Dick’s brow furrows as he listens in.

“They’re talking about your dad, my dad is gonna go find him.”

“Oh, what language is that?”

Dick grins, “it’s Romani, mom learned it just for dad and we speak it all the time when it’s just us.”

“You know a different language?” She asks, amazed. Eleanor only knew English, and a few words in Latin because of some of the books in the manor library.

“Technically, English is my second language, but I’m fluent in both. And I know some phrases in Russian and French because moms best friend is from France and Anatoly and Dimitri are Russian.”

Eleanor is about to say ‘wow, that’s really cool’ again but before she can, Mary walks back to them, crouching down to Eleanor’s eyelevel with a comforting smile on her lips. Eleanor briefly wonders if her own mother would have been anything like Mary.

“My husband, John, is going to find your dad okay? Are you hungry or thirsty?”

“No, ma’am.” Eleanor says, shaking her head. She misses dad, but this is also exciting like an adventure on TV, Dick’s family is really nice.

Dick shows her some of his action figures and other toys, but it doesn’t take long at all before she spots dad with Dick’s dad walking towards them. Eleanor jumps out of her seat and runs up to meet him.

“Eleanor.” Dad says, leaning down and hugs her tightly, almost too tightly.

“I’m sorry.” She blurts out. “I know I shouldn’t have left, but I wanted to see the elephant and…” Eleanor pauses, blurting out the last bit under her breath.

“What was that?”

“Mayor Klass talks a lot.” Eleanor repeats. Dad pulls back, his hands on her shoulders as he smiles at her briefly like she’s said the funniest thing, before he squeezes her shoulders again.

“You should never leave my side in a public place. But you’re safe, Eleanor. Just don’t do that again, okay?”

“I promise.”

Dad sighs, standing up and looks at Dick’s parents before shaking their hands.

“Thank you for keeping her safe.”

“Of course,” Mary replies. “She’s a sweet girl, there was no trouble.”

Dick also joins them, squeezing between Mary and John as he looks at Eleanor.

“You’re gonna come watch our act right?”

Eleanor turns her head up to look at dad. “Can we? Please?”

The adults smile at each other like there’s a secret that her and Dick aren’t allowed to know.

They part from Dick and his family, promising to see them all later during their act before they’re guided back to the circus proper. They play some of the games, one where you throw a ring on top of a couple of bottles, Eleanor manages to get one of them to land while dad gets all three and wins her an elephant plushie the size of a basketball. Dad buys her some cotton candy in rainbow colours that Eleanor even gets dad to taste, he doesn’t like it very much, but it makes Eleanor giggle, so he tries it again and makes an even better grimace.

By the time the sun has set there’s an announcer that starts herding people towards one of the big tents for the shows to begin. Dad gets them both a spot close to the front so that none of the other adults will be in Eleanor’s line of sight. They also get some butter tasting popcorns that Eleanor munches on while they wait for the show to begin.

Then an old man – older than Alfred! – in a top hat and lavish coat announcing Dick and his family as the spotlights turn on and up. They’re stood on a platform attached to a pillar that’s got to be at least thirty feet in the air. They wave to the people and Eleanor can’t help but wave back almost dropping her popcorn in the process. When they start to swing across the two different pillars in the tent all Eleanor can think about is how magical it must feel to fly like that. Dick swings across and does several flips in mid-air that must have taken years to learn. She tries to count the number of them when he does it again, after Mary does the same, four whole flips! When Dick is safely across to the other platform Mary swing across and for a second everything is silent as she sails through the air before John catches her, upside down on his own trapeze line. People around them clap loudly, but dad leans forward, brow furrowed. Then he tenses up, she’s about to ask what’s wrong and the next moment the line John and Mary is swinging on snaps.

All around Eleanor people scream. All Eleanor can do is watch Mary and John fall. It’s probably quick, but it feels like an eternity then they hit the sand below them and don't get back up. Quiet murmurings fill the tent, all but from Dick. Still up on the platform, crying out for his parents to get back up.

“Dad?” Eleanor whispers, feeling confused and sad. Dad wraps an arm around her, holding her closer to him and Eleanor buries her face against his side clutching the stuffed elephant to her chest, she doesn’t want to watch anymore.

Later when the police arrive, dad is talking to someone, she’s not let go of his hand since it happened. But all Eleanor can pay any attention to is Dick, wrapped in a blanket staring into his lap as some government woman tries to talk to him. Tears had long since stopped dripping down his cheeks, and now he just looks… alone. Even the government woman leaves him after a while. Eleanor’s heart thuds painfully in her chest, she was familiar with that feeling.

She tugs at dads hand, drawing his attention from the police officer he’d been speaking to. “Can I go over to him?”

Dad looks over to where Dick is still sat, then nods. Eleanor hesitantly let’s go, holding her stuffed elephant to her chest as she walks over, sitting down next to him. He doesn’t look up, instead he keeps staring at the golden bracelet he’s holding.

“That’s pretty.” Eleanor says. She remembers seeing it on Mary’s wrist earlier. Dick doesn’t reply, he flips the bracelet over, rubbing his thumb over the two birds there.

Eleanor has never been to a funeral before, but she’s visited Grandma Martha and Grandpa Thomas’ graves with dad once. They left roses on the stones and dad had told her about them. How Grandma had been a phil-anth-rop-ist and helped people in Gotham and Grandpa had been a surgeon and also helped people. Eleanor had told him that she missed them, even if she hadn’t known them, dad had ruffled her hair and when they got back home Alfred had made hot chocolate for them. Dad had been sad the whole day, and Eleanor hadn’t really known what to do. Alfred had told her that just being around was help enough.

“I got it for her birthday.” Dick whispers, tears once again rolling down his cheeks. “And now I’m never going to give her anything else.” He drops it, the bracelet makes a clang noise and rolls away before it settles. Both of them stare at it.

She shuffles a bit closer, then holds the elephant out to him. Dick looks up at her with red rimmed eyes.

“What are you doing?”

“When I’m sad I always hug my pillow at home.” Eleanor says, “it helps sometimes.”

Dick looks at the stuffed animal, then tentatively reaches out and grabs it before wrapping his arms around it tightly and presses his face against the soft grey fabric. Shoulders shaking with muffled sobs. Eleanor feels her own tears gather, so she leans in and wraps her own arms around Dick’s shoulders, hugging him just as tightly.

“Richard.” A voice calls out then and Dick sniffles again, looking up as Eleanor releases him, its that government woman again, the one in a dress suit and hair pinned up and Eleanor thinks that she looks like she’s in pain. “It’s time to go.”

“Go where?” Eleanor asks, confused. Dick moves a bit closer to her on the bench as if he’s trying to hide from the old lady.

“Richard is coming with me to the group home.” She says.

“I don’t want to go with her.” Dick whispers.

“See, he doesn’t want to. Go away.”

“Well he has to,” the lady continues. “He has no parents to look out for him anymore.”

Dick looks to Eleanor, wide eyed and still crying and Eleanor suddenly angry. Standing up and placing herself like an obstacle between the two, protecting her new friend she shouts.

“No! He doesn’t have to go anywhere with you!”

Eleanor knows that a lot of the other adults are watching her now, but she’s not going to back down. Dick’s home is with the circus, he’d told her so earlier. He shouldn’t have to go anywhere he didn’t want to. The government woman scowls at her, and Eleanor glares right back.

“What’s going on here?” Dad asks, stopping next to her. Eleanor opens her mouth to explain but the evil lady speaks before she can.

“Mr Wayne. I understand this hit close to home, but the boy has no living relatives. As such the government is…”

“Ah,” dad interrupts. “You’re placing him in the system. Knowing fully well that the system will do nothing for him.”

“Mr Wayne-“

“Placing him in a group home will only harm him.”

“He has no legal guardian left. This is how the system works.” The woman says, this time glaring at dad. Dad doesn’t seem very bothered by it.

“He can stay with us!” Eleanor says, “we have loads of room in the manor, right dad?” She looks over her shoulder to where Dick is still sat, holding her stuffed elephant like a lifeline. Then she turns her eyes to dad, pleading with him like she would Alfred when she wanted an extra cookie.

“Mr Wayne-“ the government lady starts again.

“We do have a lot of room, I’d be glad to have Dick stay with us for the time being, if that is what he wants.” Dad says, once again interrupting the evil woman.

“The procedures-“

“I think the boy may have gone through enough in one day, wouldn’t you say Detective Gordon?” Mayor Klass says, and for once Eleanor likes that he’s still lurking around dad. The police officer nods next to them and the evil woman looks defeated yet keeps going.

“This isn’t the right procedures, Mr Mayor.”

Eleanor doesn’t know what the right procedures means, but she thinks that maybe it would be better if Dick went with them rather to a place where he knew no one, even if they’d only met today. She sits back down on the bench next to him after picking up the bracelet.

“Do you want to come with us?” She asks hesitantly. Dick rubs his eyes, then looks to all the adults that are watching them.

Eleanor holds the bracelet out to him, and Dick gingerly accepts it, nodding.

“I would like to go with Ellie.” He says quietly.

Eleanor has never been called Ellie before, but she finds that she doesn’t mind at all.

“I believe it is settled.” Dad says. “Dick will come live at the manor, and we can talk more about his situation once he’s rested.”

Eleanor takes Dick’s free hand in hers, hopping down from the bench. He follows a moment later, the blanket falling off his shoulders. He might be sad like dad was sometimes, but she was going to make it her goal to see him smile again.

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you for reading!


End file.
